07:46 - 08.12.05
break in
Well dear diary. I was just turning on my computer yesterday morning when the phone rang. It was the person I was liaising with in Ottawa about the problems we were having with both the landlord and the security company that has the contract to secure the entire building - the one that bid on the security contract for our office for 5 times the average rate for across the country. Could I explain the email more clearly with respect to those issues. That took about half an hour as I struggled to differentiate between the security systems that applied to the whole building and those that were in place for my office pending approval of the uuote I had received from the security company that runs the building's security system. Hung up and started opening up my email to see how many hundred memos I had waiting for me. Opened one from another Returning Officer in Calgary.
Then my youngest arrived in my office. Did I know that the secure area door was open as was the storeroom door in the same area? No. All five of the remaining staff at the end of the night, including me, had been meeting in that area just before leaving the night before. I was one of the last ones out and I know I pulled that door shut and tested the catch. Everyone else remembered the same thing. Went and checked one of the other secure rooms where there was a computer. It was on and one program that requires a password was up on the screen. Talked with the person who uses that computer to ask if they had left it open by mistake. In a locked room that wouldn't be such a problem. No they didn't think they had left it open. Called my tech specialist to see if he had returned to the builiding after we had left o do some work. No he had not.
At about that time my phone rang. It was the liaison in Ottawa again. I explained the new problem about the break in as best I could while trying to decide what steps I next needed to take to resecure the area. She escalated the issue to the next level of authority. That person talked with me about it and then said it would be escalated again. In the meantime I called the other Returning Officer who had emailed and talked about his issues while explaining mine. He suggested the name of a company that could do the security work and I called them next after agreeing to a few joint efforts with the other RO. That security rep arrived within half an hour. Just enough time to give people directions for their tasks for the morning. He spent about an hour with me going over the options then came up with a quote. About the same level of service offered by the in house company for about 0ne tenth of the cost with more secure faetures thrown in. Emailed the lawyer at headquarters and had approval from him within five minutes. signed the contract. That was the morning gone. In the afternoon it was all about candidates and receiving our next shipment. The supplies for dealing with the candidates issues were in there so the timing couldn't have been better. I have to go get ready for today though so Scherezade will have to continuue her tale later.
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